Well-Read: Summer 2008 Design Books

Summer reads to throw in your beach bag.

Compellingly told, the tale of designer Norah Bourke Lindsay, who lived from 1873 to 1948, is one of love and money: a passion for gardening and, after her marriage fell apart in 1921, the need to turn her beloved pastime into a pro-fession. Thanks to the prodigious research of Allyson Hayward, this volume is both a social history and a portrait of a particular kind of lady. Lindsay, an English society belle, was a close friend of Lawrence Johnston, helping him with his famed gardens at Hidcote and at Serre de la Madone, which was later willed, in turn, to Lindsay's daughter. Notable clients included the Prince of Wales, Prince Otto von Bismarck and the tastemaker Nancy Lancaster.

By Allyson Hayward

Frances Lincoln, $65

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Courtesy of Rizzoli

Lanvin

Dean L. Merceron, an expert on twentieth-century French fashion and its beading and embroidery techniques, has produced a carefully crafted and magnificently illustrated monograph on Jeanne Lanvin (1867-1946), a tow-ering presence in fashion history. Madame Lanvin's 56-year career as a couturiere, milliner, perfumer, interior designer and designer of menswear and furs stands as a testament to her taste, insight and, yes, talent. Merceron documents the evolution of the House of Lanvin, its survival as a couture house until 1993 and its 2002 resurrection under designer Alber Elbaz. The book contains several stunning images of Madame Lanvin's work as a decorator, including her own interiors.

By Dean L. Merceron

Foreword by Alber Elbaz

Rizzoli, $85

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Courtesy of CICO

Nina Campbell: Decorating Journal

With her characteristic and formidable good sense, Nina Campbell has here laid out—in smart, breezy and admirably thorough style—the pleasures and practicalities of decorating. She takes readers through a house room by room: from kitchen, dining room and living room to bedroom, bathroom, hall and study. Each chapter serves as a workbook and wraps up with graph paper for planning furniture arrangements; questionnaires to help readers address issues particular to their own spaces; spreadsheets for keeping track of decisions down to the nth detail; work schedules for contractors and craftspeople; and space to record the who, what, where and when of purchases and scheduled deliveries.

By Nina Campbell

CICO Books, $19.95

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Courtesy of Abrams

Tivoli Gardens

Harry Benson's enchanting photographic study of Copenhagen's 165-year-old amusement park and pleasure palace known as Tivoli Gardens is a feast for the eyes. As John Loring, Tiffany & Co.'s design director, writes in his introduction: "On Tivoli's opening day in 1843, George Carstensen remarked to parents who brought their children to the garden, 'You are right to bring your offspring. Tivoli belongs to the future.'" Carstensen, who dreamed up Tivoli, was a Danish publishing magnate. Loring's association with Tivoli Gardens dates back over a decade to when he began designing the park's Christmas lighting displays.

Photography by Harry Benson

Introduction by John Loring

Abrams, $50

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Courtesy of Knopf

Vogue Living: Houses, Gardens, People

As Calvin Klein writes in his foreword to this lavish volume, "When I see people of great style photographed in their homes, I like to feel I'm getting some deeper insight into who they really are.... Vogue has always been my favorite magazine for this kind of story." The book includes 36 such articles from the magazine's last two decades, among them cunningly written features on the homes of such famed arbiters of taste, art and fashion as Carolyne Roehm, Marella Agnelli, Julian and Olatz Schnabel, Madonna and Guy Ritchie, Oscar de la Renta, Donna Karan and Christian Lacroix.

By Hamish Bowles et al.

Knopf, $75

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Courtesy of Thames & Hudson

The Shell: A World of Decoration & Ornament

Ingrid Thomas loves shells with a passion both academic and artistic. A conchologist and an artist, she offers a lavishly illustrated and researched tribute to one of nature's miracles. She discusses the shell in human history—its facts and fancies and its role in magic, myth and markets. Chapters on jewelry, ornamental shellwork, architecture and shells in the decorative arts enchant and overflow with pearls of art history, ethnography and anthropology. She concludes with the science of the sea: classification and naming, conchology, collecting, conservation and an illustrated glossary.

By Ingrid Thomas

Thames & Hudson, $65

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Courtesy of Frances Lincoln

John Fowler: Prince of Decorators

Dubbed the "prince of decorators" by Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire, the late John Fowler was a titanic force in postwar English interiors. The creator of "English country house style" with Nancy Lancaster, he led projects ranging from Syon House to Buckingham Palace. His sensibilities survive in his fabric and wallpaper designs still produced by Colefax and Fowler, the descendant of the firm he ran with Lady Sybil Colefax and later with Lancaster. This book is a must for devotees of great decoration.

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